Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

Hierarchs of Ukrainian Orthodox Church Invite Patriarch Bartholomew I to Ukraine

On May 21 Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych) Boryspil and Archbishop Oleksandr (Drabynko) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vyshneve visited Constantinople, where they met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

On May 21 Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych) Boryspil and Archbishop Oleksandr (Drabynko) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vyshneve visited Constantinople, where they met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

The meeting was also attended by an advisor to the president of Ukraine, the head of the humanitarian development department Yuri Bohutsky.

Representatives of the UOC-MP and the state shared with the Ecumenical Patriarch the program of commemorative events marking the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus, which is celebrated in Ukraine on the highest church and state level.

The guests passed from President Yanukovych an invitation to the patriarch to participate in the celebrations, the official website of the UOC-MP reports.